I don’t really know what possessed me at times back in the glory days of college. I did odd things for the weird reasons. Granted, I guess that is what college was about. It just took me ten years to come to the end. One of my many habits that I shared with sack was candle making. It started off as a little hobby. Make a few candles here, a few candles there. We slowly started to take over the basement of sack’s rental house (which happened to be the morris’ and later sack’s property but that is another story for another time). Different options were explored as to best optimize the candle making process. Instrumental in the success of this operation was garnering supplies from the mecca of candlemaking supplies, pourette.
We started small with a few molds and a few sheets of wax. Soon the desire to make candles started to creep upon me. More hours over at sack’s house, making candles while cake or miles was playing on the stereo.
The setup in the basement was optimal for our rise to glory. Soon wax was coming in 60-lb boxes. The double boilers were on the stove, constantly needing tending or the water would boil away and create this acrid smoke that would fill the confines of the tiny basement room. Water baths and freezers were used to hurry up the process. the mess continued to grow on the floor, over the table, and in the sink.
Candles were made in a frenzy. Melt some wax, tie some wick, make some chips, pop some candles out of the molds, hurry up and wait. the glorious shapes that would explode from those molds after gently caring for them from birth. Sweet, sweet, candles.
The glory, the power, and the fame were intoxicating. What couldn’t be bartered for in ames with a few candles. Some of my ink was acquired through candles. Drinks were had. Friends were made. We rose to the pinnacle. You realize you can’t get much higher when you make the Ames Tribune, a paper with a weekend circulation of over 10,000, the highest circulated daily in Story County, Iowa.
I can’t quite pinpoint the decline of the candlemaking. graduation, marriage, moving, all figures into the demise of the candle making experience in the basement of the 206. I still hung on to hopes and dreams. Although I think the cold reality came as the rain fell at Hookahville.
A few examples of what was…..
So I moved on, moving to seattle to pursue greater things. well, not really i couldn’t resist candle making with the holy land so close. innovations were made. no longer using the double boiler method but the crock pot. wax was melted in a much quicker fashion. monthly trips to pourette increase the molds that were on hand. more molds meant more candles in less amount of time. no longer was it necessary to spend three or four nights a week keeping up with the frantic demands. slowly the candles took a back seat. an impressive stash lay in the basement of the 65th street house. we moved out of that house and into the next. all my candle equipment sits in the cabinets, twice a year it gets pulled out and spends a few weeks in the hands of the art club at a local high school. i can still hear the molds cry at night sometimes, sometimes……
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what i distinctly recall are the “quick cool” methods of
mass producing candles. if during the winter months,
there was always prop the basement door open and
stick the molds in the snow for an hour.
you could always stick them in the old fridge (that
incidentally would have made a fine keg fridge)
to quicken the mold release time
then there was the 5 gallon buckets filled with water.
this was by far the lamest ever.
occassionally you would get water droplets into the mold
that would submerse into the wax.
you wouldn’t know of this until you were mid burn on a
candle and the wick would start crackling and then go out
from an unmined water droplet. not so much, methinks.
ahh, but the glory of sack pounding on the brick-wax
with the huge pipe wrench– beef yelling about one of
the double boilers running out of water, turning the wax
into flames licking the ceiling– all the while with a petrolum-coated
ghettoblaster pumping out Bitches’ Brew full blast.
indeed, good times.
the phoenix will rise again! beef will lead the way to the promised land with candles made without dependence of foreign oil!!
Beef – the Golden Buddha is still untouched, I can not bring myself to light it.
you still have the buddha?!?…my candles are meant to burn.
you could always stick them in the old fridge
Actually, that was a freezer not a fridge. Molten candles in a fridge would take far too long to cool. The freezer’s now at my brother’s in MN storing a side of beef or so.
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